I'm a very frequent, experienced traveler and try to gear reviews to helping folks know what to expect & make a good choice. I'll try, but being out of a somewhat different mold, this hotel may be hard to review, and I don't know yet whether this review will be more positive or negative. The hotel sits right on a busy street, so street side gets a lot of traffic noise, which includes cycles, loud bass in cars, and cars with loud engine noise (being a college town, the 'look at me' crowd is active). The exterior looks like a cross between a college dorm & prison. Parking is in a garage that is quite a hike, or by valet (complimentary), so you won't have easy access to your car. The theme is contemporary, and as one reviewer put it perfectly, 'minimalistic'. Lobby is more like a meeting place, complete with college kids lounging & playing pool, bar goers, and an aray of would-be-intellectuals playing the role so often seen in the academic bubble (with 345 college credits, I know the type). The lounge is a zoo with music so loud I had to take my cell phone outside. It has 3 TV's above the bar tuned to different channels with NO sound - good luck. The floor is just concrete coated with a clear coat (polyurethane?) A plague claims how 'green' the hotel is, but I suspect man's footprint is similar to other hotels (& the lounge & breakfast area uses plastico & disposable everything). However, it makes the academics feel good. Well, at least no trees were cut for furniture in the rooms - there is none. Just 2 formica shelves (one desk-like) between a padded bench, and a shelf-like night table (all flakeboard, which come from sawdust). The rooms are small, stark, and very minimalistic, although pleasant & modern. The beds (remember the beds? The most important thing, yet rarely mentioned by reviewers) are actually quite comfortable - not quite Hilton quality, but 2 cuts above the likes of a Holiday Inn Express. Lighting is horrible. One switch for the bathroom half of the room, which is VERY bright and very open to flood the rest of the room with blinding light in the middle of the night - bad design. There is no closet, but a very small closet like area behind a curtain in the bath half. There is a shower - no tub. A SMALL shelf has a tea bag size coffee maker - you get one cup of each. No curtains, but the window shades are light occlusive. With a good bed, it's perfect for an overnight where you will be out most of the time. Hotels in Chapel Hill are not known for bargain prices & this was marginally over-priced, even for the area (at $139). I was happy to get there, had a good night sleep, and very happy to leave. Breakfast was very limited & pricey enough. My son had an egg mcmuffin type sandwich which would make McDonald's seem gourmet-ish, and McD's would be tickeled to get those prices. My waffel & bacon was roughly $7. Hope this helps.

To be clear this is probably a 3 1/2 star property but it exceeds expectations for what it is. I had never stayed at an Aloft property, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's clearly not a W but a nice value friendly alternatively. The staff was courteous and the accommodations were very comfortable. For fellow SPG lovers, this is an exceptional point value (3,000 per night).

The concept behind Starwood's new ALoft hotels is to give good value for a better than average hotel room, and this is exactly what they have done. The rooms were more than adequate in size with an open area for the vanity and single sink. There is a sliding door to give privacy to the shower and toilet. The only issue we had was that there is only one light switch for the entire bathroom area and one light switch for the rest of the room. There was no way to have any night light and that was a problem for us. So I suggest you take a night light with you. The shades in the room kept all the light out, a plus, but that made the rooms very dark.

My family and I recently stayed at this Hotel. I used my Starwoods points and got a great room rate. That being said, we all thought the rooms were really strange. There is no closet, nor a door to the bathroom area ( it is Open concept) If anyone needed to use the bathroom, the light lit up the entire bedroom area. Towels were really thin and frayed. There is alot of street noise coming from the highway on one side of the hotel. The reception area was really "hipster", thats just the only way I can describe it.